Joe Biden and the prospect of a zombie presidency

While lots of lawsuits, recounts, recanvassing, and protests galore are in the offing in the wake of Election 2020, the prospect of a Joe Biden presidency is starring the world in the face. In the event that Biden is eventually elected, the next four years will be the sort of period that historians will find fascinating but will be hard to live through.

First, Biden would ascend to the presidency with a little less than half of Americans believing that he got there by cheating and chicanery. Tens of millions of people will believe that Team Biden was elected using harvested ballots, rigged mail-in ballots, and other dodges that have proven to be tried and true in past stolen elections. The joke going the rounds is that Trump may have won more minority voters than a Republican generally garners but Biden won the dead person vote.

American democracy depends on the idea that the losers in an election accepts the outcome. However, supporters of President Trump will believe that Biden is illegitimate. The media solemnly informing people that no evidence exists of vote fraud will fall on deaf ears. More evidence exists for 2020 vote fraud than did for — say — Russian collusion.

Next, rather remarkably, Biden is likely to face a Republican Senate and at least a House with an enhanced Republican caucus. His capability to govern will be impaired tremendously. In a way, this situation may be to his advantage. Biden can tell Bernie Sanders and members of the Squad that he cannot pass the Green New Deal or Medicare for All (or even some.)

This state of affairs will no doubt enrage the “progressive” wing of the Democratic Party. This civil war that may ensue between the left and the far left will be entertaining to watch.

Because the Republicans won so many state legislative bodies, they will be in control of the redrawing of Congressional districts that happen every ten years after the census, a factor that will likely gain Republicans the control of the House in 2022 which they will retain for at least the next decade.

The wild card of a Biden presidency is his state of health. Biden’s behavior in public and his advanced age suggest a man in the advanced stages of dementia. The possibility exists that he will either die in office or will have to be removed under the 25th Amendment.

The premature end of a Biden presidency means that Kamala Harris becomes president. Harris is so far to the left and so much an unpleasant person that she is wildly unpopular even among Democrats. If Harris becomes the 47th president of the United States, buckle up. It will be a wild ride.

Mark Whittington, who writes frequently about space and politics, has published a political study of space exploration entitled Why is It So Hard to Go Back to the Moon? as well as The Moon, Mars and Beyond. He blogs at Curmudgeons Corner. He is published in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Hill, USA Today, the LA Times, and the Washington Post, among other venues.